Bankruptcy may help you keep your car or truck
Have you fallen behind with car, truck, motorcycle, or RV payments? Most loan companies don’t care about your personal problems or why you’ve fallen behind. They are in business for one purpose – to make money. You made an agreement with them and they want their money – or they want repossession of your vehicle.
Most Dallas area residents think they are fine as long as they are not more than 2 months behind. The truth is that your car repossession can take place even if you are only one day late on a scheduled payment.
Laws were created to protect you in situations that concern your budget, that cause you deep emotional stress, or that leave you with too many bills to pay. Federal Laws allow you to keep your car, 100% of the time, if:
- You file a Chapter 13 bankruptcy
- You need the car
- The car is not an unreasonably high priced vehicle, and
- You can afford to pay your required Chapter 13 plan payments.
It all depends on your situation, but if you are behind on your car or truck payments, anything is better than doing nothing.
Sometimes a car is not worth keeping, or the car is an extra car you cannot afford. Sometimes, getting rid of one car, especially one where you owe more money on it than it is worth, avoids having to trade it in and carry all that debt over to the next car. This can be a tremendous help and this may be the first step in getting you into another car you can afford.
When we do the calculations, the car you thought you wanted to keep turns out to be a car you want to get rid of when you find out just how much it will cost you to keep it.
You do have a choice. One way or another, we can stop the calls from bill collectors and we can stop the Repo Man from repossessing your vehicle. We can explain how this negative time in your life might turn out to be a blessing in disguise. You can use federal laws to return the car and pay the dealer nothing in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case, or hopefully, very little in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy case.
